View From The WIndow

I took a long lie again this week, I have nothing to do today but potter around, although I do believe we might be starting on clearing the kitchen for the upcoming work on the 18th, oh joy. It is dull as usual with some very wet looking grey clouds scudding past us as the wind is getting stronger, it is not as cold as yesterday but a cold spell looms. The village is beginning to dry out, the lake at the bottom end has almost gone however I believe the homes in that part will take several more months to be fit to live in again. One poor punter had only just moved back into the village to find himself underwater within days of his arrival. We have had a lot of funerals recently, it seems to happen that way here, especially in the winter, and as we ran the only shop we know most of the people, some better than others but we can always put a face to the unfortunate.

I will have to get back to getting up earlier, at this time of day the missus is about, behind me I hear all sorts of distracting noises, so far she has put a heater up against a part of the living room wall which has not quite dried out properly, put a new bulb in a lamp and given me a row for not doing so, despite the fact I already tested several bulbs in it in her presence and they didn't work, why would I put a duff bulb in the lamp? Every time I hear these noises I feel that it is something I should have done but didn't and that I will pay for it later.

On the subject of getting up earlier, why does a computer take time to get up to speed in the morning? The one in the Post Office is incredibly slow of a morning, so much that I can see the customer looking at me as if to say "hurry up I can't wait all day." Surely once the magic electricity hits it it should be like a shot of adrenalin, it should be up and about awaiting my command instead of me wondering if I had actually hit the button and then do so several times again.

I was talking to a customer during the week about dentists, and it suddenly hit me that these days we are getting estimates for our dental work. When did it become normal to get an estimate for a filling, every filling must be pretty routine and they already know how much they are going to take from you, so why the estimate. It is not as if you are going to go to the guy down the road armed with your estimate and ask him to beat the price to get your business, dentists have a licence to print money, yes, it was the politicians to blame again, so why would they shave a couple of quid off to get their hands in your wallet, sorry, mouth. Why do we get 'free' treatment from doctors in the NHS but not from dentists? The point is moot here in the North anyway as you have no choice but go private as NHS dental places are as rare as hen's teeth.

I can do it cheaper for cash, nudge, nudge.

I do wonder about the modern world at times, most every day actually, in Glasgow an 'artist' has been given £15,000 to stay in the city for a year seemingly to find out how someone who cannot leave a city will be affected by career, social issues, family ties (she has no family in Glasgow), carbon footprint(?) and mental health (check the people doling out the fifteen grand). Why this should be the domain of an artist I am unsure, I wonder how many of the good people of Glasgow will benefit from this artistry during the year.

£15,000, yeah count me in.

If you are British and went to school at anytime in the past eighty or so years you probably learnt to read with Jack and Jill, I think they may have been Ladybird books, I'm not sure. My granddaughter proudly showed me her reading skills and lo and behold, Jack and Jill have been retired or simply disappeared and Naveen and Tiana have taken their place. I was a tad surprised as these names to me at least were not typical British names, I have since looked into this and they are Disney characters! Is nothing sacred, do we have to change everything for money or political correctness, even something as seemingly innocuous as reading characters.

Don't you just want to scream!

I predicted some time ago that recreational anglers would soon become a target of the animal rights people but it would seem the EU have got the boot in first. Sea anglers are now limited to the amount of Bass they can catch, I believe it is three when they normally catch much more than this as they are plentiful around Britain when in season. This has a knock on effect on the businesses of people who run boats taking anglers offshore as well as cheesing off the see-anglers, meanwhile Spanish and French boats fishing Bass can catch tons. As a recreational angler if you catch too many, say four, you can be fined around £10,000, and you just know that here in the UK some self-satisfied little apparatchik will be watching for you.

Enjoy it while you can mate.